Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World [Paperback]

McGonigal has written a fun and readable book. She has found a niche here -- the idea that video games express our best selves -- and her enthusiasm on the subject is downright infectious. I kept thinking that she is one of those people in the center of her social network. One of those people that convinces her friends to get out of the house and try new, quirky, interesting things. She makes life fun by making it a game. It's nearly impossible not to get caught up in her enthusiasm.

There are two sides to this enthusiasm. First of all, she has managed to convince people, on a grand scale, that video games can be a force for good. She has actually gone out and done things to reform the way we think about video games by creating ones that tap the potential to be useful in the world. She and game designers like her may well be a force that sees this grand idea through to the end.

On the other hand, there's a nagging feeling (the devil on my shoulder) that tells me that this idea is overstated and undersupported. The "science" here really doesn't (and couldn't, when it comes down to it) say that the world is better off as a direct result of video games. In short-term laboratory experiments, there are some interesting results. But the comparison groups here are what beg the question -- playing video games makes you more optimistic as compared to what? Because playing a role playing game for a few minutes makes you more confident in talking to the opposite sex immediately afterward does not mean that playing WoW for 22 hours a week is going to jazz up your sex life.

I can't help but think that what McGonigal is talking about is absolutely true for a select group of people -- her included, and perhaps other optimistic and playful individuals who like to treat life as a game -- but is overstated as a panacea for the human race.

In the end, I'm glad to have read the book, and would recommend it as a well-articulated vision of a very interesting idea, one that is certainly worth having a debate over.

I sympathized strongly with McGonigal's viewpoint from the beginning. I've played games for almost all of my life, having been born a few years after the release of the NES, and have long felt like games were responsible for some of the better parts of my education. So when McGonigal began her book heralding the possibilities of games educating and improving society -- one of her strongest arguments -- I was totally on board.

But when McGonigal goes more in-depth, expounding on readings of specific games mixed with hand-picked psychology findings, I was very disappointed. Her readings hardly scratched the surface of these games. Most were structured around some combination of "this is what players do in these games" and "this is how many people play this game", and drew very unearned conclusions on these bases. She explained the games in a very general way that would be clear to non-gamers, but didn't go into any kind of convincing detail. Her summaries of psychological studies were equally unconvincing; to name one example, Tal Ben-Shahar's work is significantly more complex and interesting than how it is presented in McGonigal's book. My biggest complaint along these lines, however, has to be aimed at her extremely low standard of "evidence" or "proof". Two sentences in particular are burned in my memory as examples of the kind of writing that would earn poor marks in a college-freshman-level environment:

"As countless scientists, psychologists, and spiritual leaders have proven..."
"This [that people could have fun playing her cemetary poker game] proves that Alternate Reality Games can change the world in a positive way"

What? No, it doesn't! Neither of these sentences prove anything -- moreso, her poor writing renders interesting and plausible ideas unconvincing and tenuous.

Which is a very unfortunate thing, because some of her formulations are quite challenging and impressive. McGonigal is absolutely right about the incredible amounts of energy and effort expended by gamers in service of play, and that instead of trying to direct that attention away from games, we would benefit much more from games that improve the world. She's right that games fulfill real-life needs that are unsatisfied by reality, and that we need to change reality, rather than make more interesting diversions, to properly harness the latent energy of games. I'm in total lock-step with her up to that point, and it's unfortunate that such a poor writer as McGonigal has been given such a prominent voice with which to represent these ideas.

Perhaps a more competent writer could also see a larger flaw in the argument itself, which is that the problems McGonical seeks to address are, with very few exceptions, extremely bourgeois. Putting it another way, she seeks to transform daily life through games, but her conception of daily life assumes abundance of money and food and material need. Can games change poverty? Hunger? Can they change disenfranchisement of the second- and third-world? How can games transform the world we live in if they cannot change the material conditions of the world? If they truly cannot--as is implied by her failure to consider these topics as worth discussing--are games impotent, useful only for improving the leisure time of the priveleged class?

My most common feeling in this book was that of frustration: there are some truly transformative and interesting ideas buried under layers of oversimplified, overstated arguments. It felt like having to open a hundred empty boxes to find the prize buried in a single layer of annoying packaging. Sure, the prize was good-- but was it worth the drudgery?

I encourage anyone who is interested in playing games, whether they be board, video, MMORPGs, or alternative reality games in general (ARGS), to read this book.

I have listened to the author speak, and have participated in a few games of her design, and have always been fascinated by her passion for analyzing the effects of games on its participants and society. She is a scientist of the next generation. As our world becomes smaller and our communities larger, we are beginning to see things in a new world view. Whether your particular political leanings are left or right makes no difference, for how we handle these problems are what needs debate.

Dr. Jane McGonigal recognizes the importance of some of these world issues, and creates unique opportunities to explore solutions in a "game-world". By doing so, we tend to be more focused on fixing problems in a communal sense, and we let go of our own personal prejudices and faults in order to work together for individual and community fulfillment.

She is leading her own personal quest to not only reject the notion that gaming is a waste of time, but that we can learn more about ourselves and each other through gaming. She is one of the few voices who will be leading our society for its own betterment, and I can't recommend enough that everyone read this book Reality is Broken.

She pairs a child's curiosity and wonder with the intelligence and discipline of an adult, and captivates you right from the very beginning. I received my hardcover yesterday, and am currently tearing through it. This will be in my personal library forever, as I can see where I'll need to reference her research and ideas time and time again.

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